Weekly Nostalgia: Beulah

Beulah were just a pop band. They made simple little songs about simpler things and it all went down smooth at a local sandwich shop or by a nondescript river. And if that's the outer surface for your band, congratulations. Most bands would kill to be perceived as likable and benign and so forth. Did I say kill for? I meant commit suicide because of. And that's doubly (maybe even triply) true for Beulah. The changes from album to album, like When Your Heartstrings Break's spring lightness to Yoko's dark brooding with a candy center, are almost unthinkably different. Miles Kurosky and his Beulah brethren have seen all the music world has to offer, and most of it looks like Styx - think "Mr. Roboto", not "Come Sail Away" - and this continual beatdown definitely took its toll on the boys. But even before life crashed down upon them, they were still doing whatever-the-f*&% came to mind: stripped-down debut Handsome Western States was a whole album of "Ballad of the Lonely Argonaut." It was an album that hinted at the beautiful orchestration that was to become the band's calling card (made of hemp, no less!). And if all that sounds just terrible times a million, gargle with this: Yoko is about divorce. Chances are you're an emo poopface. Let's not kid ourselves here, that sounds right up your sadsack alley. I'm judging you.